The Toronto Raptors season would be a bust if… Toronto misses the playoffs. General Manager Bryan Colangelo’s squad misses the playoffs for the second consecutive season. Raptors fans are excited about a transformed roster that saw the additions Jarrett Jack, DeMar DeRozan and Hedo Turkoglu to the fold with Olympic gold medalist Chris Bosh and point guard Jose Calderon but expectations may be too high for a team that won just 33 games a year ago. With so many new faces, the departure of defensive stopper Antony Parker and a new coach in Jay Triano, the Raptors must find a way to come together quickly if the team expects to make much noise in the playoffs this season. While a deep run in the playoffs isn’t likely, anything less than the playoffs would be disastrous for Toronto.

The NBA Breakdown crew hooked up with Tracy Murray and Sharone Wright over the holiday season for a special reunion show. It was a fun show with a lot of laughs and the guys took us for a great ride down memory lane. There’s no doubt that old school Toronto Raptor fans will appreciate what the guys had to say. Plus we even had a couple of surprises for them as well.

In Villanueva where he continues to train, this week José Manuel received a visit from Eric Hughes, the shooting coach of the Toronto Raptors. Eric Hughes has been cooperating with Joan Ramón Tarragó in this week’s training. His presence coincided with the start of the training workouts for José Manuel and have included many shooting drills. José Manuel’s recovery is well under way and he looks like he will be ready for the start of the preseason in Canada.

1. Chris Bosh, Toronto — 2008-09 numbers: 21.5 PTS, 2.3 AST, 9.5 REB, .569 TS%, 22.1 PER CB4 probably belongs on the top of this list even if he just delivers the same numbers he has over the past four seasons, but it’s a contract year and he wants to prove he’s worth a max contract. I don’t know if his scoring numbers will increase, but I think he’s going to jack up his intensity on defence and on the boards.